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Stephen Douglas Prophecy
An interesting bit of Mormon lore links Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, an Illinois justice and politician made famous for a serious of political debates on slavery and state rights in 1858 and losing the US Presidential Election to Abraham Lincoln in 1860, to a very remarkable and well documented prophecy from the Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith (1805-1844). Introduction Mr. Douglas was a presiding justice in western Illinois in the early 1840's and presided over several highly publicized trials and legal hearings where Joseph was being prosecuted by his enemies for trumped charges from the Missouri courts. Mr. Douglas was commended for his fairness on the bench and usually ruled in Joseph's favor, based on the points of law challenged. This included a very big trial at Monmouth IL in July 1843. Soon thereafter, the two of them were having dinner together, where at Joseph made this very unique prophecy that if he failed to support the cause of the Latter-day Saints, he would fail miserably in politics. The details of this event were originally recorded by William Clayton who at that time was serving as the personal secretary to the prophet and his near constant companion, making him an eyewitness to the event. The following is recorded in his journal under the date of 18 May 1843 at Carthage IL. The Prophecy 1843 Dined with Judge Stephen A. Douglas, who is presiding at court. After dinner Judge Douglas requested President Joseph to give him a history of the Missouri persecution, which he did in a very minute manner, for about three hours. He also gave a relation of his journey to Washington city, and his application in behalf of the Saints to Mr. Van Buren, the President of the United States, for redress and Mr. Van Buren's pusillanimous reply, "Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you;" and the cold, unfeeling manner in which he was treated by most of the senators and representatives in relation to the subject, Clay saying, "You had better go to Oregon," and Calhoun shaking his head solemnly, saying, "It's a nice question—a critical question, but it will not do to agitate it." The judge listened with the greatest attention and spoke warmly in depreciation of the conduct of Governor Boggs and the authorities of Missouri, who had taken part in the extermination, and said that any people that would do as the mobs of Missouri had done ought to be brought to judgment: they ought to be punished. President Smith, in concluding his remarks, said that if the government, which received into its coffers the money of citizens for its public lands, while its officials are rolling in luxury at the expense of its public treasury, cannot protect such citizens in their lives and property, it is an old granny anyhow. "And I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left, for their wickedness in permitting the murder of men, women and children, and the wholesale plunder and extermination of thousands of her citizens to go unpunished, thereby perpetrating a foul and corroding blot upon the fair fame of this great republic, the very thought of which would have caused the high-minded and patriotic framers of the Constitution of the United States to hide their faces with shame. "Judge, you will aspire to the presidency of the United States; and if ever you turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of Almighty upon you; and you will live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you; for the conversation of this day will stick to you through life. He Douglas appeared very friendly, and acknowledged the truth and propriety of President Smith's remarks. This prophecy was published several times in the mid-1850's, well after Joseph's death, and while Sen. Douglas was reaching the pinnacle of his career. * Published in Deseret News - 24 Sep 1856 in Utah. * Again in Deseret News on 2 Sep 1857 * Published in Millennial Star - Febr 1859 in England. 1857 Betrayal Just one year after the prophecy was first published in the Deseret News, on 12 Jun 1857, (probably in the midst of the heated senatorial election race between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Judge Douglas publicly betrayed any support the Latter-day Saints at a speech published on 18 Jun 1857 in the Missouri Republican. "The knife must be applied to this pestiferous, disgusting cancer which is gnawing into the very vitals of the body politic. It must be cut out by the roots, and seared over by the red hot iron of stern and unflinching law...Repeal the organic law of the Territory, on the ground that they are alien enemies and and outlaws, unfit to be the citizens of a Territory, much less to ever become citizens of oen of the free and independent States of this confederacy. 1858 Senate Campaign The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Senate in Illinois, and Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. At the time, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures; thus Lincoln and Douglas were trying for their respective parties to win control of the Illinois legislature. The debates previewed the issues that Lincoln would face in the aftermath of his victory in the 1860 presidential election. The main issue discussed in all seven debates was slavery. The October surprise of the election was the endorsement of the Democrat Douglas by former Whig John J. Crittenden. Former Whigs comprised the biggest block of swing voters, and Crittenden's endorsement of Douglas rather than Lincoln, also a former Whig, reduced Lincoln's chances of winning. On election day 1858, the Democrats won 40 seats in the state house of Representatives, and the Republicans won 35. In the state senate, Republicans held 11 seats, and Democrats held 14. Stephen A. Douglas was reelected by the legislature, 54-46, even though Abraham Lincoln won the popular vote with a percentage of 50.6%, or by 3,402 votes. However, the widespread media coverage of the debates greatly raised Lincoln's national profile, making him a viable candidate for nomination as the Republican candidate in the upcoming 1860 presidential election. He would go on to secure both the nomination and the presidency, beating Douglas (as the Northern Democratic candidate), among others, in the process. 1860 Presidential Campaign Douglas was the obvious nominee for the Democrats in the election of 1860, despite the opposition of President Buchanan. Although Douglas was not reappointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, his allies defeated Buchanan for control of the party throughout the North, and in early 1860 he was the front runner for the nomination. However, Douglas faced implacable opposition in the Deep South. When the 1860 Democratic National Convention met in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 23, Douglas supporters included half of the delegates, but very few from the South. Many Southerners openly predicted the collapse of the party and the election of Republican front-runner. he bolted Southern Democrats nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge. Some former Whigs formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell. Despite the vigor of his campaign, Douglas was defeated. He received 1,376,957 popular votes (second at 29%), but only 12 electoral votes (fourth and last at 4%), with Lincoln receiving 180 (and it is the electoral votes that decide the winner). 1860 Letter of Orson Hyde After Douglas' defeat Orson Hyde (1805-1878) wrote to him the following letter, which was published in the Deseret News. (Deseret News, 27 November 1860) Judge Douglas, Will the Judge now acknowledge that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet? If he will not, does he recollect a certain conversation had with Mr. Smith, at the house of Sheriff Backenstos, in Carthage, Illinois, in the year 1843, in which Mr. Smith said to him: "You will yet aspire to the Presidency of the United States. But if you ever raise your hand, or your voice against the Latter-day Saints, you shall never be President of the United States." Does Judge Douglas recollect that in a public speech delivered by him in the year 1857, at Springfield, Illinois, of comparing the Mormon community, then constituting the inhabitants of Utah Territory, to a "loathsome ulcer in the body politic;" and of recommending the knife to be applied to cut it out? Among other things the Judge will doubtless recollect that I was present and heard the conversation between him and Joseph Smith, at Mr. Backenstos' residence in Carthage, before alluded to. Now, Judge, what think you about Joseph Smith and Mormonism? Epilogue Douglas died, just only 7 months after losing the presidential election, in Chicago from typhoid fever on June 3, 1861. He was buried on the shore of Lake Michigan. And as for the earlier parts of this prophesy: * The Whig Party - (the ruling party in the White House when this prophecy was made) which had been a dominant force in the white house and national politics from 1830-1853, ceased to exist after the 1860 elections. * Missouri and her citizens - was a key border state during the U.S. Civil War and was badly decimated by near constant warfare by citizen guerrilla and armed forces of both sides during the full course of the war. References * Scott Woodward * Reported by B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, Vol. 2, Ch. 51, p.182 ff. * B.H. Roberts, The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo, pg 185-187. * Lincoln-Douglas debates - Wikipedia * Jeff Lindsay - Prophecies of Joseph Smith * The Whig Party - Wikipedia Category:Prophecy Category:Latter Day Saint movement